Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has called Israel a “terror state” for committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza, while asserting that Hamas militants are not terrorists but members of a “political party elected by Palestinians.”
Erdogan declared in an address to his party members that Turkey would fight to have Israel’s political and military leaders recognized as ‘terrorists’ and tried in international courts.
He also said that Israel was a “terrorist state” set on destroying Gaza and the thousands of people who reside there.
The Turkish leader went on to depict Hamas gunmen who massacred 1,200 Israelis in southern Israel on October 7 as’resistance fighters’ trying to safeguard their territories and people.
He said Hamas was a political party elected by Palestinians while ignoring the fact that there hasn’t been an election in Gaza since 2006, when Hamas defeated Fatah, a secular movement. Since then, Hamas has effectively seized control of the territory and instituted totalitarian rule.
Speaking to MPs in parliament, Erdogan also demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declare if Israel possessed nuclear weapons or not, adding that the Israeli prime minister was a ‘goner’ from his position.
Erdogan also stepped up his criticism of Israel as the IDF continued to strike the Gaza Strip and assaulted Gaza City’s major hospital, where thousands of people remain confined.
‘Israel is implementing a strategy of total destruction of a city and its people,’ Erdogan said. ‘I say openly that Israel is a terrorist state.’
More than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli bombings in response to Hamas’ slaughter of 1,200 civilians in southern Israel. The IDF has accused Hamas of employing citizens as ‘human shields’ in tunnels beneath hospitals and houses.
